Sir Samuel Wilks, Bt | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 2 June 1824 |
| Died | 8 November 1911 (aged 87) |
| Nationality | British |
| Alma mater | Guy's Hospital |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | medicine |
Sir Samuel Wilks, 1st Baronet, FRS , FRCP (2 June 1824 – 8 November 1911) was a British physician and biographer.
Samuel Wilks was born on 2 June 1824 in Camberwell, London, the second son of Joseph Barber Wilks, a cashier at the East India House. After attending Aldenham School and University College School he was apprenticed to Richard Prior, a doctor in Newington. [1]
In 1842 he entered Guy's Hospital to study medicine. After graduating MB in 1848 he was hired as a physician to the Surrey Infirmary (1853). In 1856 he returned to Guy's Hospital, first as assistant physician and curator of its museum (a post he held for nine years), then as physician and lecturer on medicine (1857). From 1866 to 1870 he was examiner in the practice of medicine at the University of London and from 1868 to 1875 examiner in medicine at the Royal College of Surgeons.
Among his major discoveries, Wilks recognised ulcerative colitis in 1859, differentiating it from bacterial dysentery. His work was confirmed later (1931) by Sir Arthur Hurst. [2] Wilks's autopsy of a 42-year-old woman who died after several months of diarrhoea and fever demonstrated a transmural ulcerative inflammation of the colon and terminal ileum.
Wilks also firstly described trichorrhexis nodosa (the formation of nodes along the hair shaft), in 1852. The term was proposed in 1876 by Moritz Kaposi (1837–1902), a Hungarian dermatologist. In 1957, he provided the first autopsy description of a condition of the upper airways, later known as tracheobronchopathia osteochondroplastica. [3] Subsequently, in 1868, he published the characteristic mental symptoms on alcoholic paraplegia (later to be named Korsakoff's syndrome). Wilks described the first case of myasthenia gravis, in 1877 (it was named "bulbar paralysis" in Guy's Hospital Reports 22:7).
He was a collaborator and biographer of the "Three Great", contemporary physicians who worked at Guy's Hospital, Dr. Thomas Addison, the discoverer of Addison's disease, Dr. Richard Bright, discoverer of Bright's disease and Dr. Thomas Hodgkin, discoverer of Hodgkin's lymphoma. After the death of Addison in 1860, he carried out the job of examining specimens from all over the country in order to confirm the diagnosis of Addison's disease and thus was able to amass a large case archive. He also rediscovered and confirmed the existence of Hodgkin's lymphoma, at the same time recognizing Hodgkin's priority and proposing the eponym.
Among his many services and honors, Wilks was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in June 1870; [4] was president of the Pathological Society (1881–1882); president of the Neurological Society (1887); member of the Senate of the University of London (1887–1900); member of the General Medicine Council (1887–1896) and president of the Royal College of Physicians (1896–1899). He was named Physician Extraordinary to Queen Victoria in 1897. The following year he was created a baronet, of Grosvenor Street in the Parish of Saint George Hanover Square in the County of London.
In later life he suffered a stroke and was terminally paraplegic. He died aged 87 at his home in Hampstead on 8 November 1911. After his death the baronetcy became extinct. He had married Mrs. Elizabeth Anne Prior, widow of previous employer Richard Prior; they had no children.
Thomas Addison was an English physician and medical researcher. He is traditionally regarded as one of the "great men" of Guy's Hospital in London.
Guy's Hospital is an NHS hospital founded by Thomas Guy, located in the borough of Southwark in central London. It is part of Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust and one of the institutions that comprise the King's Health Partners, an academic health science centre.
Thomas HodgkinRMS was a British physician, considered one of the most prominent pathologists of his time and a pioneer in preventive medicine. He is now best known for the first account of Hodgkin's disease, a form of lymphoma and blood disease, in 1832. Hodgkin's work marked the beginning of times when a pathologist was actively involved in the clinical process. He was a contemporary of Thomas Addison and Richard Bright at Guy's Hospital in London.
Sir William Jenner, 1st Baronet was a significant English physician primarily known for having discovered the distinction between typhus and typhoid.
Samuel Jones Gee was an English physician and paediatrician. In 1888, Gee published the first complete modern description of the clinical picture of coeliac disease, and theorised on the importance of diet in its control. His contribution led to the eponym Gee's disease. Gee is also credited with the first English-language description of cyclic vomiting syndrome.
Sir William Hale-White was a British physician and medical biographer. He was the son of writer Mark Rutherford.
George Hilaro Barlow (1806–1866) was a British physician. He was a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, the first editor of Guy's Hospital Reports, and the principal author of A Manual of the Practice of Medicine.
Sir John Rose Bradford, 1st Baronet was a British physician.
Samuel Osborne Habershon was an English physician.
Golding Bird was a British medical doctor and a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians. He became a great authority on kidney diseases and published a comprehensive paper on urinary deposits in 1844. He was also notable for his work in related sciences, especially the medical uses of electricity and electrochemistry. From 1836, he lectured at Guy's Hospital, a well-known teaching hospital in London and now part of King's College London, and published a popular textbook on science for medical students called Elements of Natural Philosophy.
Charles Hilton Fagge (1838–1883) was an English physician.
The Pathological Society of London was founded in 1846 for the "cultivation and promotion of pathology by the exhibition and description of specimens, drawings, microscopic preparations, casts or models of morbid parts."
Thomas Watson, was a British physician who is primarily known for describing the water hammer pulse found in aortic regurgitation in 1844. He was president of the Royal College of Physicians from 1862 to 1866.
John Syer Bristowe (1827–1895) was an English physician.
Joseph Frank Payne (1840–1910) was an English physician, epidemiologist, and a historian of medicine.
James Goodhart (1845–1916) was an English physician whose work extended into various medical fields, including morbid pathology and paediatrics. He held positions in a number of London hospitals and institutions, including Guy's Hospital and the Evelina Hospital for Sick Children. After his retirement, he set up in private practice in Portland Place, London. In 1911, Goodhart was awarded the baronetcy of Portland Place and Hoylte.
The Gordon Museum of Pathology is a medical museum that is part of King's College London in London, England. It is one of the largest pathology museums in the world and is the largest medical museum in the United Kingdom. Its primary function is to train medical, dental, biomedical and healthcare students and professionals to diagnose diseases.
Charles Richard Box (1866–1951) was an English physician, surgeon, and anatomist.
The causes of Jane Austen's death, which occurred on July 18, 1817 at the age of 41, following an undetermined illness that lasted about a year, have been discussed retrospectively by doctors whose conclusions have subsequently been taken up and analyzed by biographers of Jane Austen, one of the most widely read and acclaimed of English writers.
Leigh Rayment's list of baronets
